CVE Vulnerabilities

CVE-2016-1017

Use After Free

Published: Apr 09, 2016 | Modified: Jan 26, 2023
CVSS 3.x
8.8
HIGH
Source:
NVD
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
CVSS 2.x
9.3 HIGH
AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C
RedHat/V2
6.8 CRITICAL
AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P
RedHat/V3
Ubuntu
MEDIUM

Use-after-free vulnerability in the LoadVars.decode function in Adobe Flash Player before 18.0.0.343 and 19.x through 21.x before 21.0.0.213 on Windows and OS X and before 11.2.202.616 on Linux allows attackers to execute arbitrary code via unspecified vectors, a different vulnerability than CVE-2016-1011, CVE-2016-1013, CVE-2016-1016, and CVE-2016-1031.

Weakness

Referencing memory after it has been freed can cause a program to crash, use unexpected values, or execute code.

Affected Software

Name Vendor Start Version End Version
Flash_player Adobe * 11.2.202.577 (including)
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 Supplementary RedHat flash-plugin-0:11.2.202.616-1.el5 *
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 Supplementary RedHat flash-plugin-0:11.2.202.616-1.el6_7 *
Adobe-flashplugin Ubuntu devel *
Adobe-flashplugin Ubuntu precise *
Adobe-flashplugin Ubuntu trusty *
Adobe-flashplugin Ubuntu wily *
Flashplugin-nonfree Ubuntu devel *
Flashplugin-nonfree Ubuntu precise *
Flashplugin-nonfree Ubuntu trusty *
Flashplugin-nonfree Ubuntu upstream *
Flashplugin-nonfree Ubuntu wily *

Extended Description

The use of previously-freed memory can have any number of adverse consequences, ranging from the corruption of valid data to the execution of arbitrary code, depending on the instantiation and timing of the flaw. The simplest way data corruption may occur involves the system’s reuse of the freed memory. Use-after-free errors have two common and sometimes overlapping causes:

In this scenario, the memory in question is allocated to another pointer validly at some point after it has been freed. The original pointer to the freed memory is used again and points to somewhere within the new allocation. As the data is changed, it corrupts the validly used memory; this induces undefined behavior in the process. If the newly allocated data happens to hold a class, in C++ for example, various function pointers may be scattered within the heap data. If one of these function pointers is overwritten with an address to valid shellcode, execution of arbitrary code can be achieved.

Potential Mitigations

References